Bingo, Lottery, or Keno?

2007.09.13

Some friends and I were in Las Vegas, and we were playing Keno, and it got me thinking. What draws people to Keno when they could just as easily play bingo or the lottery? At first I was kind of thinking that it's a sad statement about our society. You can only play the lottery once a day, and a bingo game often takes several minutes. Keno, on the other hand, is instantaneous. I mean, you can play online or at a casino, but in either case, you'll know if you've won pretty quickly. There's no shouting "bingo" and there's no waiting until the evening lottery drawing.

Are we really that impatient? Do we really have to have such quick results with every game we play? What does this say about our society?

Then I started thinking about the difference between bingo and Keno, and I realized that there are actually some marked differences. For example, in bingo, you don't get to choose your numbers. Sure, some places let you choose cards, but you don't actually get to choose your own numbers. This means that clairvoyance can't help you at bingo nearly as much as it can in Keno. Next, bingo is hard work. You have to sit there and mark your numbers, and it's not always in the right order. Then you have the fact that usually bingo prizes are small. Bingo jackpots never go as high as Keno jackpots because bingo's usually played so there's a winner in every single game. Add in the fact that you can't play bingo at most casinos, and I guess maybe Keno really is better than bingo, especially if you'e psychic and you know what numbers will come up next.

When you think about it, it really does make sense to play Keno instead of the lottery. For example, most state lotteries only let you win if you've gotten 6 out of 7 winning numbers. Keno lets you choose loads more and there are many more small prizes. And that's just the beginning. In the lottery, there are buying groups that end up taking the grand prize sometimes. If you do win the jackpot in a high-value lottery, you're almost sure to have to share your prize with one of those groups. Plus, the lotteries with the good prizes are rare. You can just keep playing and playing for them when you're playing Keno. There's always a great jackpot. Sure, Keno still heavily favors the casino, but that's just a fact of life with gambling. If the players ended up taking home most of the money, the casinos would go out of business.

Keno has pretty good prizes and excellent jackpots. It's available at most casinos, both online and land-based. Keno has great excitement and it's really fun to play, so if you're a fan of popping-number-balls, Keno's the game for you!